Year 1
Welcome to Year 1
In Year 1 there is Miss Drury, Mrs Sheldon- Price and Mrs Penchion
I am so excited to be joining Year 1 this year! We have an exciting year ahead planned with lots of opportunities for creativity and using our imaginations. In Year 1 we will embrace challenge and fuel our love of learning even further. We will praise each others achievements and learn and grow together throughout the year.
Our Curriculum in Year 1
At St. Mary’s we go above and beyond to ensure that the firm foundations of knowledge are put in place in order for our children to achieve their full potential actively, creatively and holistically.
We have built our curriculum so that it is sequential so that children’s learning can build both depth and breadth ; it is purposeful in order to make learning here meaningful for children living in Rothwell whilst being spiritual at all times in order to fit with our Catholic Ethos Statement.
Year One
Our latest news
Please take a look at what we have been learning!
Year One Curriculum Newsletter
Autumn 1: Year 1- Autumn 1 Newsletter
Autumn 2: Year 1- Autumn 2 Newsletter
Spring 1: Year 1 Spring Newsletter
Spring 2: Year 1 Spring 2 Newsletter
Class of 2019/2020
Reading Week
For reading week we focused on ‘What the Ladybird Heard’ by Julia Donaldson. We began by using our inference skills when looking at pictures of the farm at the beginning and at the end of the story. We talked about what was different and discussed why. Well done Year One!
On Tuesday we came into school to find that our frog prize pot had been taken from our classroom and had only clues left to help us find out who had taken it! We looked at the adjectives used in the story and thought about how we could use adjectives to create our own wanted posters to find whoever had taken it! The wanted posters were fantastic and definitely worked as our frog prize pot was returned the next day. Super work Year One!
On Thursday we had a dress up day and the children looked fantastic!
On Friday, we had a fantastic workshop on Fairytales and Dragons. We really enjoyed watching the fantastic performance of a fairytale. All of the puppets and props were made from recycled items! We then worked in small groups to create our own worlds for where we would like our fairytale to be set. We came up with some fantastic ideas and really used our imaginations to build them!
Science
After discussing what we think we could grow on the farm in ‘What the Ladybird Heard’ we looked closely at our new Science topic, plants. We discussed what plants were and what they needed to grow. We looked closely at instructions for planting beans and sequenced these in order. We gathered the equipment we would need and planted our own individual beans which we will be keeping a very close eye on as they grow!
Maths
Continuing our work on place value we have been looking at representing numbers to 50. We used different manipulatives to represent given numbers up to 50 and tell our partners how many tens and ones we could see.
History- Kings and Queens
To end our learning on Kings and Queens we had an exciting theme day. We dressed up as Royalty and played the parts of Kings and Queens all day. We talked about what the crown symbolised today and through history. We then made our own and they were fantastic! We also learnt about the coat of arms and what it represents and created our designs. We wrote our own Royal Invitations for our Royal Tea Party that we enjoyed in the afternoon. What a lovely day we had!
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- Our Royal Banquet Hall
RE- Collective Worship
Year One children led a beautiful collective worship on ‘Love’ this week. We each thought of a way that we could show love and drew or wrote this on hearts. We ended our worship by laying these in the worship circle and reflecting on this.
Maths
In Maths we have been investigating how many number bonds to 20 there are. We used a systematic approach to help us find them all!
Science
We have continued to look at everyday materials in our Science lessons. We investigated which material would be most suitable for making a house for the three little pigs. We used a variety of materials (bricks, lego, straws, clay, matchsticks) to investigate!
We have enjoyed investigating which materials would be most suitable for making an umbrella for our class teddy, Hattie. We talked about ensuring our method is fair and enjoyed making predictions. We tested plastic, kitchen roll, cling film and tin foil. We used our new vocabulary (absorbent, non- absorbent, waterproof and not waterproof) to describe the materials.
Year One have had a fantastic start to the new term, they have settled back wonderfully into school routines. Here is some of the learning we have been doing this week.
Maths
In Maths we have been continuing with place value with a focus on numbers eleven to twenty. We worked in pairs to build our own number line in numbers and words. We talked about how the numbers change and which digit changes as the numbers get bigger. We have continued to use our fantastic reasoning skills.
History
Our History topic this term is ‘Kings and Queens’. We introduced our topic by acting out our own Coronation. We looked at some Kings and Queens from the past and used sources to try and guess how long ago they were King or Queen. We talked about new vocabulary (Monarch, Coronation, reign) and what these words mean.
Science
Our new topic in Science this term is Everyday Materials. To start with we looked closely at objects made from different materials and investigated which materials they were made from. We added labels to the objects and discussed why a certain material had been used. We introduced new vocabulary (flexible, transparent) to describe the materials and their properties.
English
In English we have started our new story ‘Lost and Found’ which is a lovely story about friendship. The children have been using their talk for writing actions to retell the story beautifully. We then made our own story maps and used these to tell the story to the rest of the class. We then used these to support us with our written retell of the story where the children chose their own character.
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- Using our whole class story map to retell the story
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- Re-telling the story using a story map
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- Re-telling the story using a story map
RE- Advent
As we began Advent last week we each shared our Advent promises that we then added to our classroom display. We discussed how we prepare for Christmas and thought about what each of the candles on our Advent wreath represents. We used oil pastels to create our own Advent wreath pictures.
Geography and Computing
In Geography we have been looking at our local area of Rothwell. After looking closely at Rothwell on a map we then used Ipads to research the key features of our local area.
English
Year One have been editing experts this week! They have been doing a fantastic job of spotting spelling and punctuation mistakes. We have been using these skills within our own writing and really working hard to read our own work back to check it. Well done Year One!
Science
For our Seasonal Changes topic in Science we have been discussing the difference in day length throughout the seasons. We focused on shadow length and talked about why our shadows are sometimes longer or shorter. We really enjoyed making our own shadow puppets to test out!
Music week- 80’s theme!
On Friday we welcomed a visitor to school who taught us how to play the drums. The drums were from Brazil and we learnt how to play them loudly, quietly, fast and slow. We learnt the many different sounds you can make using just one drum. We learnt about rhythm, pitch and tempo. We enjoyed making animal sounds with our drums as well as learning a call and response music sequence that we performed for parents in the afternoon. It was a fantastic day!
On Tuesday we had our own 80’s disco!
We started off our music week by learning some eighties songs and dance routines. We took it in turns to perform songs from the eighties using a variety of musical instruments. We had lots of fun dancing!
The children loved wearing their eighties clothes for our music themed week! They all looked absolutely fantastic! Thank you all for the hard work that has gone into their outfits!
Art
We have been using our talk for writing skills this week to learn a set of instructions on how to make a clay hedgehog. After writing our instructions we used them to create our own hedgehogs!
RE- Collective Worship
The children led a beautiful class worship focusing on Remembrance Day. We thought about the importance of remembering the soldiers who died to keep us safe and how we can be kind and care for others. At the end the children laid their poppies that they had made throughout the week.
Geography
To start our ‘Home Sweet Home’ topic Year one have started by identifying common features on maps. We discussed where we might find maps and why we use them. We talked about how maps can show small or large areas from room plans to world maps. We then worked together to create a plan of our own classroom.
Maths
Year One have been very busy again this week in Maths. They have been creating number sentences and representing them in different ways. Well done Year One!
Music
This week we welcomed visitors into school to help teach us about music. We enjoyed watching a fantastic performance of Skylar’s Missing Note. It was a musical story all about a girl called Skylar and her piano. A note went missing from the piano but Skylar was still able to enjoy playing her piano and even found different ways to create music. After the performance we enjoyed a music workshop where we created our own music using our voices and learnt about pitch, tempo, dynamics and rhythm. What a wonderful morning!
History
To end our history topic ‘Ourselves and Families’ the children brought in their family tree projects to share with the class. We were blown away with the hard work that had gone into them. We enjoyed sharing our family trees and hearing about each others families.
Science- Signs of Autumn
Year One have enjoyed trying to find signs of Autumn this week!
Reading
We loved visiting our new library and having a read of our new wonderful books!
Maths
We have continued to use our number skills when ordering numbers in both numerals and words this week.
Science
In Science, we have been learning all about Seasonal Changes. We have really enjoyed using our art skills to represent the changes in trees across the four seasons.
English
We have really enjoyed learning our new class story ‘Peace at Last’. We enjoyed using story maps and talk for writing to help us learn the story. Year One were fantastic with their talk for writing skills and have used their actions to help them with their writing. Well done Year One!
RE- God’s Great Plan
In RE we have been talking about the world that God created for us. We enjoyed talking about our favourite things about God’s beautiful world. We each drew something that we loved about God’s world and added these to our cross.
Maths
Year 1 have had a very busy first week! They have been superstars in Maths and have been practicing their counting by putting objects into groups. Well done Year 1!
English
We really enjoyed listening to our new class story ‘Funnybones’. We worked in groups and used actions to perform some parts of the story. Fantastic Year 1!
Class of 2018/19
Sports Day May 2019
Our topic this term is safari! We have been learning about the culture and climate in Kenya in our topic lessons; wild animals in science; tribal African patterns and pots in art; and traditional Tinga tales in literacy.
In Year One, we have refurbished our reading area! The children decorated butterflies, chose their favourite books to write on parcel tags and we sorted through our class books. We can now use the area as a wonderful, calm treat for children!
We recently held our Year One class assembly, celebrating Mary in the month of May. We talked about Mary’s love and care for her son, Jesus, and the children related this to their own mummies!
This half term, Year One have been enjoying weekly visits from Miko, the therapy dog! She loves to listen to children read.
Spring 2:
Everyone in Year One enjoyed getting dressed up for World Book Day this year! We focused our costumes and learning on our class topic, Space! Our classroom was transformed and we even had a giant Solar System model! We wrote space poetry, which we performed in a class recital.
Autumn 2: At the end of last half term and the beginning of this one, we have been exploring numbers to 10! Here is some of the super group work we did when finding number bonds to 10 in different ways!
Information about Planning
Long Term Plan – Year 1- skills and knowledge
Autumn 1:
Medium term plan – Medium Term Plan- Year 1
RE planning –11-Gods-Great-Plan-PS-Using-Revised-Book-1 (1)
Autumn 2:
Medium term plan – Medium Term Plan- Autumn 2- Year One
RE planning –Year 1 RE Planning- Mary Mother of God
Spring 1:
Medium term plan – Spring-1-Year-1
RE planning – Families and Celebrations- Year 1
Spring 2:
Medium term plan – Spring-2-Year-1
RE planning –Spring 2- Following Jesus
Summer 1:
Medium term plan –
RE planning –
Summer 2:
Medium term plan –
RE planning –
Helping at Home
Following our Maths information evening for parents, we have shared some useful documents to see how Maths is taught in school. The most effective way for you to help would be to practice the ‘progression in number facts’ and times tables.
Parents’ Information Evening Nov 18
Rothwell St Mary’s Calculation Policy
Weekly phonics sounds
Please take a look at the phonemes your child is learning in class. Please look at these sounds with your child at home whenever you can. New sounds will be added weekly.
Useful phonics links to access:
https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/for-home/advice-for-parents/reading-at-home/phonics-made-easy/
https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk
The Geraldine the Giraffe videos on you tube are a useful resource for your child to watch. We sometimes use these within the classroom.
Websites to access at home to help with your child’s learning:
https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk
https://www.topmarks.co.uk
https://play.numbots.com/#/intro
Here is a useful video to help with the correct articulation of phonemes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqhXUW_v-1s
Homework
Spellings
Please find below information on spellings for this term. We will practice a set of spellings over a two week period in class focusing on using these within our writing at all times. Spelling books will no longer be coming home but please find the list of spellings for Spring One half term. When practicing these at home it would be beneficial for children to put the words into sentences or statements as this is what we will be doing in class.
Your child may receive a task to do related to the book they are currently reading. The task will usually link to something we are learning in class that week. Please encourage your child to do the writing.
Each half term your child will receive a project to complete related to the topic we are learning about in class. Please can your child bring these in to school during the last week before half term so that we can share our amazing work with the rest of the class!
Thank you for your support with this.
Miss Drury